Julius walked along the edge, looking down at the minor buildings surrounding the palace. He reached the rear and had to edge around a sloping section, thankful the old tiles were dry and steady underfoot. Behind the palace, there were smaller structures used by slaves and servants. As Julius saw them he smiled.

“Can you see this?” he said.

Cleopatra peered over the edge with him.

Below, a sloping line of tiles seemed to come close to the main wall. Julius knelt, then lay on his stomach. The other roof looked near enough to jump to, or climb down to on ropes. From there, he could see a mismatched trail of homes and temples leading across the city.

“That’s the place,” he said. “If I can get men down to that first roof, they can cross above the heads of Ptolemy’s soldiers. They’ll never know we are there. Can you see a window at the same level?”

Cleopatra lay flat to crane her head over the rim. She nodded and both of them became aware of their closeness at the same time. Julius knew his men would be watching, but he was still captivated by her. He shook himself.

“I must go down and find the room that looks out onto those roofs.”

“Isis has favored you, Julius, in showing you the way,” Cleopatra said.

He frowned. “My own eyes had something to do with it.”

She laughed at that, coming quickly to her feet with all the easy grace of youth. Beside her, he felt old, but then she kissed him, her tongue grazing his with the taste of marble dust.

Ciro and Domitius eased their heads a fraction out of the rear window, looking down before jerking back. The Egyptian archers were good and they did not want to risk even a long shot.

“Twenty feet down and about six across,” Domitius said. “We can make it, if they don’t see us coming. After that I don’t know. I couldn’t see how far the roofs reach before we’d have to come down. It may not be far enough.”

“There’s no other way,” Julius replied. They could all hear the hammering below while the army milled in the grounds. “As soon as they bring catapults, we’re finished, unless our food and water run out first. We need to draw some of them away at the very least.”

“Let me have this one, sir,” Domitius said. “With a cohort of the youngest men to try for the ships.”

Julius looked at him. “Very well. Ciro, you go with him. Pick your men ready for sunset.”

Brutus had come to see what delayed his commander and he seemed nervous. “I would like to go as well,” he said.

Julius frowned. “Your arm is barely healed. How would you climb down twenty feet of rope?”